Alfa Romeo have become the first team to show their 2023 challenger on-track, with the Hinwil-based outfit having completed a shakedown test.
The outfit revealed a clip of their 2023 car hitting the track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Valtteri Bottas behind the wheel.
The video showed Bottas driving out of the team’s pit box at what appeared to be a beautifully sunny Barcelona, with the Finnish driver showing off his new helmet.
Alfa Romeo’s new livery looked stunning as Bottas got underway, with the Finnish driver having passed the car over to Zhou Guanyu Friday afternoon, with the pair both having been given a chance to shake off any rust from the winter break.
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Interestingly, it was noticed that the floor being used at the shakedown test was different to the one that the team presented at their launch Tuesday morning, suggesting that it won’t be seen in action until the official pre-season test in Bahrain.
The side will be hoping to build on their impressive 2022 campaign, where the team claimed sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Despite their success last season, Bottas believes the team “need to achieve more”, with Alfa Romeo clearly having high hopes for the forthcoming season.
“We need to achieve more, it’s simple as that, we always need to aim for better, aim for higher, the whole team, and myself included,” Bottas said at the team’s launch, as reported by Formula1.com.
“We always need to keep improving, that’s what drives us, so, expecting… better consistency, more points, better results – but how to get there, that’s the tricky bit. That comes from all the details and working really, really hard together as a team.”
For Zhou, 2023 marks his sophomore season at the pinnacle of motorsport, meaning he’ll need to show further improvement to remain on the grid in 2024.
The Chinese driver has been working on his starts during the off-season, with that being the area that he feels the team struggled last season.
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“From my side, I think as a team it’s quite clear, it’s the first 100 metres [at the start],” said Zhou, as reported by Formula1.com.
“[In the] beginning of the year I was improving my one lap pace, to get the confidence to be absolutely pushing on the limit, not making mistakes in quali, and we were able to reach that throughout the season.
“But [at] the starts, we were the team that couldn’t get the most consistency out of it. As a team we’ve been working super hard since the last winter. Hopefully, we will be making a further step up, and try to be more consistent on my side.”